Eco-Shakespeare

Catalog description

Do Shakespeare's plays register and respond to the ecological crises of his day, including deforestation, land enclosure, climate change, and animal exploitation? Or, are they complicit in the ideologies that instated these practices? What kind of relation do Shakespeare's plays envision as underpinning the natural and the cultural realms and how does this differ from modern conceptions? We will seek answers to such questions by considering the plays' use of pastoral tropes and green worlds, but also by analyzing the inter-animating dynamics they stage between subject and environment. Enrollment limited to 23. Not open to first-year students.